Virgin Media overcharging me grrrr

[handbanana]

A few google searches and its clear that i'm not the only one getting headaches from Virgin Media and its led me to this site, so hopefully I can get some help on this matter.

Last Jan (07) I signed up to NTL's broadband package of 2mb at £10 a month for the first twelve months. I'm a uni student living with three other students and its all about getting the cheapest deal, so £10 is great.

Me being me I don't really ever check my bank statements because its never good news, but on occasion I have a glance before i rip it up and bin it. And in May I noticed Virgin Media payments were taking £17 out of my account a month. I'm stupidly lazy so its taken up until now to do anything about it.

I wasn't about to waste my mobile phone credit on them so I contacted VM by email about a month ago. They take just as long to reply and the reply was "call this number...". ****ers...

So I cave in, call them up. I'm told that yes, initially i did sign up for the £10 a month "medium" deal as its called. But in March I was suddenly on the next package up ("large" I guess) and paying £17 a month. No explanation given. Im furious and telling the guy on the phone that I clearly didnt sign up for such a deal bla bla bla, its falling on deaf ears. The guy can't help and tells me to call another number tommorrow. This btw all happened tonight.

So i'm really annoyed. Not least because whatever VM overcharged me, even if it does get repayed, will probably get eaten up in phone call costs to them. And secondly, my mum just signed up with Virgin Media for the same deal literally days ago and I want to get her out of it but I imagine its gonna be hard work.

I'm gonna call them back tommorrow and see what happens. Just wondering if there is any advice I could get here? Maybe this has happened to other people?

[lostandconfused]

when you call tommorow ask who upgraded it. If there are no notes to backup why it was done, it is clear you didnt request it.

Did you call in areound that time with speed issues? I think it was about then that some of the tech support people were upgrading people without letting them know, either way you are due a refund.

If you dont get any joy, request to speak to a manager. But try to be calm when you do call in, you'll get a lot further that way.

[handbanana]

thanks for the advice. i never had any problems with speed that i told them about. i didnt even notice any difference when they bumped it up from 2mb to 4mb. ill report back tomorrow with the results of my phone call

[foreverwar]

Ask them to send you an email confirming what you've discussed, including amounts, duration of deals (if any), and what services are involved. It's always useful later if their is any further "confusion".

If they won't, ask for their email address, so you can send them a record what you believe has been agreed.

[handbanana]

Uh. This company is unbelievable.

So I called them earlier today. The first lady I speak to listens to my problem, takes all my details and then declares that she can't help me so puts me through to another department. Then THAT department can't help resolve the matter, so they put me through to another department (probably back to the first one, too stressed to care by now). This happened four or five times before finally i'm told that the best course of action is to send a letter to Customer Concern and that they will repay the money that they overcharged me. Because, you know, in this day and age of modern technology, sorting things out by post is a lot more efficient than phone or email. The phone call lasted just over 40 mins by the way.

All they explained was that I signed up for a 2mb broadband package, and they gave me a 4mb one instead, but obviously it was costing me more (£17 opposed to the £10 I should have being paying). Still they haven't explained why this happened, but they admit it was a mistake on their part and not mine. But now they have switched it back to 2mb so im paying what i should be now. I did request to speak to a manager but was told that none was around or available. They did say I should get all the money im owed back, but how long that takes I don't know.

I mean, whats wrong with these people? They owe me like £40, why are they so desperate to cling onto it? And the customer service advisors are inept. One of them told me she had no access to my billing records before May. Then I told her that the previous advisor I spoke to had access to all my records and suddenly boom she can see all my records from when i signed up. grr....

So now i've got to write them a letter. I'm going to ask my bank to print off a statement of all the money transfers from my account to Virgin Media tommorrow and include that in the letter.

Cheers for all the help so far, i'm pretty much resigned to the fact this will take forever and I even considered not writing a letter because im tired and annoyed but I will. I just can't believe a company can act like this when they owe me money!!